Newton Community Pride relying on the power of the arts, promoted a captivating way to bring art lovers and supporters together in this transitional, almost post-pandemic world. On March 30, friends, artists, Newton's representatives, guests and families celebrated Nancy Schön's extensive artistic career and outstanding accomplishments. Newton-based legendary artist Nancy Schön continues to brighten the scene. Nancy welcomed her audience with her unique, well-known warmth and charisma by sharing insightful stories and highlights of her life as an artist, dedicated mother and beloved grandmother. Best known for the charming, iconic landmark, “Make Way for Ducklings” sculpture located at the Boston Public Garden since 1987, Nancy's work can be seen all over Boston, New England and in Moscow, where the only replica of the ducklings stands as a gift from United States First Lady Barbara … [Read more...] about A TRIBUTE TO A CELEBRATED PUBLIC ARTIST AND SCULPTOR: NANCY SCHÖN
Exhibits
WOMEN CAN HAVE IT ALL — A CELEBRATION THROUGH THE ART OF Zeynab Movahed AT High Line Nine Gallery
Running from April 5 through 18, Roya Khadjavi Projects brings Iranian woman artist Zeynab Movahed to High Line Nine Gallery 9.1 in New York City. Movahed’s work celebrates women’s freedom in moving about her day, including social and family commitments in the Tehran metropolis of her residency by women clearly in control of their present and future. Reflecting the unstable societal situation present in Iran and worldwide, the artist takes us on a Joycian tour of places where women socialize in Iran. Realizing that a reflection can be a memory of the past or an immediate vision of the present, that cellphone reflection becomes a past vision as soon as it is recorded or sent, with the present taking over immediately afterwards. The paintings show the artist’s reflection in her cellphone image and society’s reflection of her. By painting women together and alone in cafes, Movahed … [Read more...] about WOMEN CAN HAVE IT ALL — A CELEBRATION THROUGH THE ART OF Zeynab Movahed AT High Line Nine Gallery
MARIANO IN HIS MANY, MANY GUISES AT BC’S MCMULLEN GALLERY
What would you do if you were headed up from Cambridge across the Charles River to Boston College’s McMullen Art Gallery just outside the main campus on Commonwealth Ave — #2101 to be exact — looking for a little color to brighten up the gloom of an early fall New England morning? I had promised our two art lovers in the back seat a short, scenic drive plus a destination with bongo drums and banana plants enriched by the bodacious senoritas and testosterone-fueled senors to be met with on every yard of Cuba’s balmy shores. And without the bother of international flight! Ah, but, as usual we had reckoned without the artist, and what academics call, if you will, ‘inspiration!’ We arrived at Boston College’s McMullen Museum of Art to view “Mariano: Variations on a Theme | Variaciones sobre un tema,” a retrospective exhibition of 140 oil paintings, watercolors, and drawings that … [Read more...] about MARIANO IN HIS MANY, MANY GUISES AT BC’S MCMULLEN GALLERY
SURvIVING THE LONELINESS OF COVID: LIZ SHEPHERD’S POWERFUL UNGATHERED AT BOSTON SCULPTORS GALLERY
Rare is the contemporary artist who can make the “personal” universal. Liz Shepherd is one of these special artists. She experienced agonies with Covid-19: her contraction of the virus, loss of creative time, total isolation and a non-Thanksgiving. Her brush with death, loneliness and confusion is translated into a positive vision at the Boston Sculptors Gallery, one all viewers may relate to. Shepherd is an artist who has spent decades exploring many media, and is in total control of her craft. She confidently mixes soft-media papier-mâché with the unyielding hardness of welded steel. A lost Thanksgiving meal is her symbol for the devastation wrought by the virus. Three empty black-wire chairs surround a non-existent table. An exquisitely crafted paper pitcher, a serving bowl and ladle float in the air, Empty placemats hang nearby. On a wall close-by, 16 colorful … [Read more...] about SURvIVING THE LONELINESS OF COVID: LIZ SHEPHERD’S POWERFUL UNGATHERED AT BOSTON SCULPTORS GALLERY
WORKING IN A MULTITUDE OF MEDIUMS, SOWA ARTIST STEVEN LUSH REFLECTS HIS INFLUENCES
Artist Steven Lush, who operates out of Studio #220 in the SoWa Artists Guild Building at 450 Harrison Avenue in Boston’s South End, has led an extraordinary career. His work reflects the extraordinary life and approach towards life as an artist that he took. Born to an artistic family, Lush’s mother was a major influence on his decision to go into art. She was an artist herself as well as a musician. She taught him how to draw and paint when he was five years old, which led to him developing an interest in drawing and ultimately becoming a self-taught artist. Despite his interest in drawing early on in his life, for a period of 15 years, Lush’s work was primarily done in the medium of watercolor on paper. His inspiration to use this medium came from looking at the watercolor work of Winslow Homer in a magazine that his mother owned when he was growing up. Other artists are not … [Read more...] about WORKING IN A MULTITUDE OF MEDIUMS, SOWA ARTIST STEVEN LUSH REFLECTS HIS INFLUENCES
SLOW AND STEADY AT VOLTA AS ARTISTS SHARE THEIR VISIONS OF A BETTER AND BRIGHTER WORLD
With 69 galleries representing five continents, 50 cities and 40 nations, VOLTA Basel 2021 is showing beautiful work. Evoking nature in several exhibitions, it satisfies my and probably your craving for natural beauty amid the emptiness and depressing devastation of cities during Covid. At Charlie Smith, London, artist Dominic Shepherd paintings are inspired by fairy tales, including “Hedge Witch-2021” and “The King is Dead, Long Live the King 2.” As we have all learned, fairy tales can be both delightful and frightening and Shepherd’s paintings attest to that duality. Iranian artists at three galleries new to VOLTA this year, Bavon Gallery, Mohlsen Gallery and Saradipour Gallery (SARAI), repeat the natural beauty motif. At Saradipour Art (SARAI), Mahdieh Abolhasen’s layers of land and history interacting in her grey, drawings encourage a slow, contemplative connection with … [Read more...] about SLOW AND STEADY AT VOLTA AS ARTISTS SHARE THEIR VISIONS OF A BETTER AND BRIGHTER WORLD